Reviews
Time and the Rani
Mel (Bonnie Langford) in Time and the Rani (1987).
Urak (Richard Gauntlett), leader of the Tetraps, with his mistress, the Rani (Kate O’Mara).
Audiobook
Featuring The Seventh Doctor and Mel
Written by Pip and Jane Baker
Read by Bonnie Langford
BBC Audio RRP £20 (CD), £9 (digital)
Time and the Rani, Sylvester McCoy’s debut as the Doctor, has always been one of the series’ less-loved adventures. This 1987 production had the twin disadvantages of unceremoniously writing out the Sixth Doctor, and launching the Seventh Doctor’s era, with almost no time to finesse the scripts.
The result is colourful and energetic, but arguably very silly. It features the amoral Time Lord renegade, the Rani, kidnapping geniuses from throughout time and space to create a giant brain
with which she plans to take over creation – that is, if she can persuade the captive Doctor to essentially fix the fan inside her computer. From interplanetary righter of wrongs to galactic IT consultant is a bit of a comedown. Maybe the Rani would have been better off hiring Mel, the Doctor’s computer genius companion, rather than simply dressing up as her.